What question would you like God to answer?

Actress, Minnie Driver, from Good Will Hunting fame, has a podcast called Minnie Questions. In each episode she asks her guest a series of questions based on French novelist, Marcel Proust’s questionnaire, which she says was, ‘originally a nineteenth century parlour game where players would ask each other 35 questions aimed at revealing the other players true nature. In asking people the same set of questions you can make observations on which truths appear to be universal.’

Minnie has adapted the questions and she recently spoke with Cord Jefferson, American writer and director, who made his feature directorial debut with the satire American Fiction (2023). She asked him, ‘What question would you most like answered?’

Minnie said the top two questions are: What happens when you die and will we see our loved ones again?

Cord first wanted to know what other people had asked, and Minnie said the top two questions are: What happens when you die and will we see our loved ones again?

READ MORE: Why Grimes is turning to Christianity to help her stop smoking

I found this interesting, reminding me of Ecclesiastes 3:11: ‘He has planted eternity in the human heart…’ I think deep within in us is a knowledge that we have another home, even we don’t recognise it yet. 

Mr Jefferson then said the question he would most like answered is: ‘Is God real? And if so, what does God want from us?’

He went on to say, ‘I think we are in a crisis right now as human beings, a crisis of meaning….I think we have reached this place where people have lost faith in everything and lost meaning.’

He talked about the ‘third place problem’, saying the world used to be full of these third places – ‘home, work and then the third place - church, or your bowling league etc. A place you go to be with other people that has nothing to do with your family life or work life.’

‘People used to go to church a lot, they used to be part of a community. Now these social groups [have] contracted and church attendance is way down, people don’t even really go into the office any more, so the first and second place has become one. People have lost faith in institutions and lost hope in the future.

READ MORE: Can you be an intellectual and believe in God at the same time?

‘I just really want something to give people meaning again, I am hopeful that we can find a semblance of global hope.’

A friend of mine recently sent me a clip of Elon Musk’s ex partner, Grimes, saying something similar: ‘I do think the death of religion is very bad. I do think killing God was a mistake…without shared coherent morality….I think it is having a big impact on cultural problems. There are not built in free things that people do together as a community. I think people are pretty spiritually lost and a lot of people are, like, filling this need for a moral authority with politics which is leading to a lot of chaos,’ she said to Andrew Chow, technology correspondent at TIME.

READ MORE: Here’s why you need to watch the Jesus Film

Paired with these two interviews, I listened to Simon Guillebaud’s most recent Inspired podcast, an interview with Alaskan, Corey Schmidlkofer. A drug addict from the age of 13, Corey was in and out of juvenile detention and very nearly died. He was in a hopeless situation, until an older man in a drug house told him he needed help - he needed to give his life to Jesus. Two weeks later Corey was at the funeral of his best friend who had overdosed, and his friend’s father said the same thing. Corey did give his life to Jesus, and the story that follows is a remarkable faith building story of miracles and redemption. With his wife Corey started a church for the homeless, prostitutes and drug addicts in Anchorage, Alaska, and they too began to find healing and hope, being set free from their addiction. 

I wanted to play Grimes and Cord Jefferson Corey’s story….if only I had them on my Whatsapp contacts. They are asking the questions, and don’t yet know the reality of a God that changes lives, sets us free and transforms us with his love and purpose for our lives.

The world is crying out asking if there is a God and meaning to life, and we have the good news so let’s be bold and share it.